Ares to Ares
by techluver
Summary: AU: After Ares 3's surface mission was scrubbed, NASA studiously avoided taking satellite imagery of the area. Until one day, a year after Sol 6, when Satcon starts to make some strange observations...
1. Chapter 1

A/N Hello there! I'm sorry I have so many unfinished stories... yes, I may or may not get around to finishing them eventually. But a friend gave me this idea, and even helpfully outlined it for me, and so I had to write it.

There are a few quotes from the book and the movie. I lifted them. Please don't sue me. I love the fandom.

Comments/reviews appreciated. I hope you enjoy!

Chapter 1

It seemed as if it was going to be just another routine day.

Mindy Park checked her email, and began to organize her list of mundane tasks. She'd just settled in for the night shift, and she made a note to herself to work on organizing some of the imagery that had been processed for the Ares Resupply Mission.

This particular mission was two years away from being launched, but already there was mounting pressure from all departments to make sure that everything would go off without a hitch. The Ares Program _needed_ a drama-free mission. Losing Watney had been a blow to the entire organization and they wanted to make sure that everything was ready before they sent more people to space. Their funding depended on it.

As she went through her torrent of emails, one in the lengthy list particular stood out. It was from Venkat Kapoor, the Director of Mars Missions. Four pay-levels above her. Even before she noticed the **Importance: High** flag on the message, she knew it must be important. Very important.

Opening it, she realized that it was a direct order to take satellite imagery of a specific set of coordinates. 31.2 degrees north, 28.5 degrees west.

Those coordinates seemed to ring a bell, she thought, absentmindedly. She knew she'd seen them somewhere, a long time ago, maybe, but she wasn't sure where.

She pulled up the NASA intranet and started a search. She knew, instinctively, that this was an important moment, although she couldn't quite put her finger on why. Something big was about to happen.

For one thing, she _never_ got emailed directly by the Director of Mars Missions. For another, the fact that he'd given her specific coordinates and not an actual location set off a red flag in her mind. Why would he do that, she thought to herself pensively.

Well, she was about to find out.

Fifteen minutes later, she had her answer. It wasn't the answer that she'd been expecting, though. She was staring at the data for the Ares III surface mission. It was the exact location of the Ares III Hab.

She'd better make certain that Kapoor knew what he was asking for, here, she thought. Otherwise, she risked taking pictures of a dead Mark Watney, lying there in the sand, and there would be no option but to make those pictures available to the public, within twenty-four hours. Even a lowly Pathways employee knew that anything related to the Ares III mission had to be handled very delicately.

She clicked Reply on Kapoor's email.

 _You want satellite images of Ares III?_ she verified.

Five minutes later, the reply arrived.

 _Yes_.

Thirty minutes later, Mindy was reaching for the phone.

"Security?"

"Hello, this is Mindy Park. Satcon. I need the emergency contact number for Venkat Kapoor?"

"Yes, _him_."

" _Yes_. It's an emergency!"

After another twenty minutes of bureaucratic bullshit, the bored dispatch person on the other end of the line was finally convinced to give her Kapoor's home number.

She dialed.

The phone rang. And rang. After nine rings, someone finally picked up.

"Yes?" came the extremely groggy-sounding male voice.

She was nervous, scared and starstruck, all at the same time. Kapoor was something of a legend; this man whom she greatly admired, and she was calling him on the phone! At the same time, the situation and circumstance was not at all the correct moment for fangirl adoration. She tried to keep her excitement in check.

"Dr. Kapoor? This is Mindy Park. From Satcon? I just got done processing the imagery you requested. I believe," she trailed off for a moment, not sure how much she should tell him, over the phone, "you should come in. Right away."

As she waited, pacing, she didn't know what to do.

She was scared by what she saw.

For the first time ever while working at NASA, she could feel dread in every vein of her body. Something was not right.

Something was very, very wrong.

Venkat arrived fifteen minutes later. "This had better be good," he began, grumpily. "I had just fallen asleep when you called."

"Um... yeah. Sorry." Mindy stammered, pulling up the first image on the screen.

"The Hab looks good," Venkat pointed out, "Except..." he trailed off, as he immediately noticed what Mindy had already seen. The solar farm, along with both rovers, had suddenly, unexpectedly, inexplicably disappeared. There was not a trace.

Venkat was shocked, there was no other way to put it. He didn't know _what_ to think.

Words failed him.


	2. Chapter 2

**LOG ENTRY: SOL 63**

I finished making water some time ago. I'm no longer in danger of blowing myself up. The potatoes are growing nicely. Nothing has conspired to kill me in weeks. And seventies TV keeps me disturbingly more entertained than it should. Things are stable here on Mars.

It's time to start thinking long-term.

I realized that I have enough supplies to last up to Sol 900. But what am I going to do after that? The answer is, that I don't know. This is something that will require some thought. At least I have 837 sols to come up with a solution. (Well, actually I have a little less, because I have to actually implement the solution, but, one thing at a time, right?

There's another piece of wonderful news. I have potatos. Oh yes, nice, home grown, martian potatos. So if I end up needing to do a long journey, I won't have to live on meal packs, and I won't have to starve, either. I have 2 crops of potatos, which should last me a good 150 days.

While sitting here watching Schoolhouse Rock, courtesy of commander Lewis, (yeah, that Mother Necessity song really, really did hit home), I came up with an idea.

This is not the only Hab on Mars!

Boo ya!

If they sent Ares III with redundant supplies, then they most certainly would have sent redundant supplies with Ares I and II! And if they are still good (really, what can go wrong with a food pack?), then I can eat them! I could live until Ares IV!

Now, there are a few problems with this picture:

Problem A, is I don't know where the other two Ares Habs actually are. The planet-wide maps we were sent were grainy, and don't show much in detail. Finding a Hab in this mess will be difficult.

Problem B, is that I only have 2 working rovers, and each one can only go thirty-five kilometers before needing to be recharged. At the Hab. Yeah this could get a little messy.

I decided to sleep on the issue, and I'll worry about what to do later.

 **LOG ENTRY: SOL 64**

I came up with an idea. I don't like it, and it could get backfire spectacularly. But I think it should work.

You see, the rovers each have a tow hook, that allows you to tow one rover using another one. This way, they share resources, like power. I figure I can use both rovers, and empty out one of them to serve as storage, while living, and breathing using the other one. This will double both my charge and storage capacity.

It took an hour, but I was eventually able to hook together both rovers. The idea is I will make one long train of rovers, winding up with 6 in all. I will be the engineer, driving the entire train from the head. I'll pick Rover 2 as my head car.

Now I have the issue of life support. The rovers are designed to support two people for three days, plus some reserve. That's roughly seven days, if it's only one person.

However, going to Ares II is going to take (at least ) sixty days out and another sixty days back. Looks like I'll need to figure out some life support (AKA, bring in enough CO2 and O2 filters to do the job, or else bring the oxygenator, atmospheric regulator, and water reclaimer). I'm lucky that I'm going on a journey to the older Ares I and Ares II Habs, because I'll be able to loot their redundant CO2 and O2 filters as well.

With that, I should pretty much have unlimited access to life support. Storing oxygen will also be tricky, but I found a solution to that as well. I plan to bring along one of my Hab O2 tanks, and use it to top up the rover's tanks so that I can have a constant supply of oxygen to breathe. Seeing as I am not planning to come back here (might as well set up by Ares II, since it's really close to Ares I), I don't mind looting the HAB for all it's got.

Power is going to be a bit trickier. The rovers are not designed to go very far without a recharge. Ideally, we were supposed to complete EVAs within the span of a day, and come back to the Hab to sleep at night. This obviously will not work for my purposes.

There is only one solution: I will have to take some solar panels from the farm with me.

Actually... come to think of it... I'll take the whole farm.

Well, now that I've defined a huge set of problems, it's time to solve them.

Ugh... tomorrow.

Half ration today, all I did was think.

 **LOG ENTRY: SOL 68**

I came to the realization that since I won't be coming back, I should find a way to take anything and everything to help me. This means loading up the rovers with as much crap as I can. So the last few days were all about gutting.

And when I say gutting, I really mean _gutting_. Rover 1 is now a shell of its former self. There is one tank for the regulator, but besides that, there is literally nothing in it. Now, I have a nice, pressurized area to put all my crap in.

Rover 2, as my driving vehicle, couldn't be gutted as severely. I was able to get rid of the passenger bench, though, and the sampling equipment, but I decided to leave in the life support for obvious reasons.

This took a day. Now all I have to do is lug some of this stuff around out of my way, load up, and I'll be ready to go!


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N Hey y'all! Sorry it's been so long between the 2 chapters.**

 **I have to thank Alexandra926, for being my editter and inspiration for this story. You rock!**

 **November 10, 2036**

Guo Ming sat dumbfounded, focused on the e-mail currently scrolling across his screen.

He didn't know what to think.

Only that this couldn't be happening.

NASA had just released a statement that the solar farm and rovers from Ares III had disappeared. There was no indication of how long ago this had happened, most likely because the assholes at NASA, in their wisdom, didn't _want_ to look in case of a public relations issue. But now they'd looked.

This could only mean one thing.

There was someone on Mars.

Their lost astronaut, Watney, must have survived. There was no other explanation.

Eleven months earlier, in between launches of the Ares missions, China had launched its own.

Dubbed the Kan Huo ("Seeing Fire") Missions, these were intended as a series of manned missions to Mars, but without international backing. And indeed, without the _oversight_ of the entire world. Free from criticism and agency agendas that such transparency might invite.

These missions were top security clearance; only highly-ranked employees of the CNSA knew of their existence, currently.

Kan Huo I had arrived at the Ares II site, three months prior.

Rather than engineering a mission from scratch, the ever-thrifty CNSA had instead devised a plan to reuse the greater part of the abandoned supplies at the now-forgotten Ares II site. With the addition of a few supply probes of their own, they were able to launch their own team of astronauts: Wei, Hua, and Kuo.

The three were instructed to land at the Ares II site, reinflate the Hab that was already on site, and proceed with their mission; the general assumption being that NASA would no longer be monitoring the site, and it would be safe. The world need never know, if something went wrong. Success would be just as sweet, delayed, for less than half the expense that the wasteful Americans would have incurred for the same mission.

It had been such a clever scheme, he thought, wringing his hands.

Ming walked to Zhu Tao's office in a daze, with a growing sense of dread. It was time for full disclosure.

If he was correct, and Watney and the Kan Huo crew members had come into contact… it would be a scandal, an unwanted spotlight on the Kan Huo program; it might even seem dishonorable, or even result in international litigation, and other things he'd rather not deal with. No, best to shut this down while he still could.

"Sir," she greeted him respectfully. "What can I do for you? You never come by unless it's an emergency!" She smiled up at him.

"Which it might end up being." replied Guo Ming. "Did you hear about the disappearance of the Rover and solar farm from NASA's Ares III site?"

"No I have not," said Tao, with a puzzled frown. "Brief me."

Guo Ming explained that there had been a satellite technician at NASA, who had noticed, belatedly, that the rovers and the entire solar farm had disappeared from the Ares III site.

Tao looked mystified. She absentmindedly smoothed her perfectly-coiffed hair, trying to see where Ming was going with this.

"I do not understand how this concerns us, sir."

"Watney may be alive. And if he goes to the Ares II site, which I believe he has, looking for extra supplies..."

Instantly, Zhu Tao was on her feet, eyes wide.

As the agency's under-director, she was the person solely responsible for protecting the reputation of the CNSA. This sounded like a nightmare.

"But what can we do?" she almost whispered.

"I do not know," said Guo Ming. "But we must make a plan. Quickly. Before this begins to break, on the international stage."

The Kan Huo missions were conducted in a largely similar manner to the Ares missions.

The agency had quietly designed modules, launched them, and constructed their ship, christening it the _Huo Chuan._ ("Fireship") Like it's Western-built counterpart, _Hermes_ , _Huo Chuan_ could safely travel the vast distance to Mars, carrying six crew members.

The CNSA's cunningly designed ascent vehicle was already ready and waiting, on the Martian surface. It used a larger RTG than it's Western-built counterpart, the MAV. Fully half the volume of the ship was comprised by an enormous fuel cell, topped by a small crew compartment.

It had the ability to communicate directly with _Huo Chuan,_ the Ares II Hab, crew EVA suits, as well as the Ares II Rover vehicles.

For this, their first manned deep-space mission, they had chosen to send a reduced crew; their three best astronauts.

Commander Kuo had been the obvious choice to lead the crew; supremely well-connected and educated, and more importantly from a family with high standing within the Communist party. Nobody dared to call Kuo by his first name. He was known to all and sundry as Kuo xien shen (Sir Kuo) and was a distinguished looking man, in his middle fifties. He had all the qualifications and more than enough attitude for the mission.

Kan Huo I's physician, Dr. Hua, also served a dual role as the mission's SysOp. A bright and multi-talented astronaut in her mid-forties, Dr. Hua Shuo Zhen had risen through the ranks of the CNSA in record time and was uniquely well-qualified for this scaled-down mission. Her scientific focus was Human Performance Studies, and she would serve as the crew's main scientific mission specialist.

The youngest and lowest-ranked member of the crew was the mission's engineer, Wei Suay Jia. Wei served as a sort of glorified errand girl aboard _Huo Chuan_. Whether it was maintaining the reactor core, or preparing meals for the two higher-ranked crewmembers, a smiling and cheerful Wei would keep things on _Huo Chuan_ running smoothly. Born the second daughter of a influential family, Wei was educated and attractive, possessing a good deal of common sense and level-headedness for her relative young age.

Zhu Tao was standing outside his office, making a call to Fang, the CNSA Director of Mars Missions. Fang, a no-nonsense fellow with many years of experience and study, quickly convened a meeting between the three of them, to discuss what to do next.

There was simply no way to scrub the mission at this point. The state council would never allow it. Kan Huo I was simply too important.

Astronaut Watney and their three crew members would inevitably come into contact. Now they had to figure out what to do about it.

The more they discussed it, the more they realized that there was only one thing they _could_ do.

Before he had the opportunity to resurrect the communications dish at Ares II, Watney would have to be intercepted and terminated by the Kan Huo I crew.


	4. Chapter 4

**Log Entry - Sol 69**

So today, I realized that I have a problem. A major problem.

Right now, I have a grand total of 2 rovers. These things are the size of a van. In these, I need to put my food, water, oxygenator, atmospheric regulator, water reclaimer, solar panels, extra EVA suits (because some shit is going to break down, I just know it), and everything else. Plus me, of course.

This is going to take a few months to prep.

 **Log Entry - Sol 72**

After brooding about the situation for a while, I decided to get to work. The first thing I dealt with was food.

I thought that I could store all of it in the other rover that I'm towing around. My cargo trailer.

Well you know what? I can't. It eats up half the space!

This is going to be a lot more difficult than I had originally thought.

But fear not, I have an idea!

I've been trying to figure out how I'm going to store and transport fifty solar panels; each of them are two square meters, and maybe an inch thick. They were engineered to stack securely and tightly together, of course, for the trip to Mars. Vogel and I unpacked them and set up the solar farm ourselves, so I'm plenty familiar with how they're supposed to fit together.

Then I was trying to figure out how to store all of my taters. So I had a crazy idea to solve both my problems.

I decided that the obvious solution was to use _the solar panels_ to store and transport the solar panels.

I used one of the panels to form the bottom of a crate, and four more of them for the sides. Then, I duct-taped the whole thing together. I did this twice, making two crates for me to work with. Each of my newly-created solar panel crates holds forty-five panels, which is more than enough!

It's important to note here that I only used duct tape to form the panel crates, so that I can still use the panels once I arrive at the other site. I assume they'll still be functional. I'll use the actual ones in the box to charge the rover.

After my little duct tape construction project, I took my two new panel crates, which were open on top, and mounted them to both sides of the trailer.

First, I took 2 MAV landing struts, and formed them into brackets in an l-shape, using a hammer and... not much else. Then, I drilled holes in the undercarriage of the trailer, and finally, I bolted the shelving into place.

In one of the boxes, I stacked the other forty-five pannels. In the other went the potatoes. This seemed to counterbalance the weight, and I was pretty good to go on storage. The potatoes cannot be stored in the pressurized environment; they'll spoil. I'll keep a few with me in the rover for easy access during the day, but the others will go into the solar box.

You know, I've been thinking. I'm going to have to live in this thing for fifty days. I won't be able to stand, or walk around, or anything for _fifty days_.

I've decided that I need a bedroom. I think I can use the pop tents for that purpose. After all, when I get to the other Habs, they ought to also have Rover pop tents that I can use as potato farms.

One problem, though, I'll need to use one of the pop tents as an extension of the pressurized area. Doing some math, I'll never get the Big 3 into the unmodified rover. Looking over things, it looks like I'll need to cut a hole in the rover.

 **Log Entry: Sol 80**

OK... wow. That was a lot of work. So the first thing I had to do was hard-wire the drill into Hab power.

It took me a while to figure out that the drill's batteries were never going to last anywhere close to the amount of time I needed. If I relied on the batteries it'd take ages to get it all done.

Then, I drilled 760 little fuckin holes, and chiseled out 759 little fuckin chunks, until I had one large hole in the rover.

Finally, I glued the pop tent canvas into place. That was the easy part. Now I have a nice, big pressurized area.

 **Log Entry: Sol 88**

It occured to me that I could do the same thing with the Rover. This would nearly double my carrying capacity. So I had lots more fun with the drill, and lo and behold, I now have a nice large compartment in the rover.

Now I have plenty of room to store all my stuff. Luckily I won't have to do the same thing with the other rovers.

One thing I hadn't considered:

Power

I didn't know how far I would be able to go on one charge. Key knowledge for planning my upcoming epic road trip, of course.

So, I found out. I drove circles around the Hab, and took notes.

I got only 40 kilometers before the batteries were totally dead.

I had really thought it would be more like 90, so I'm a little confused by those results.

 **Log Entry: Sol 89**

I figured it out.

The goddamn heater is the problem.

That mother fucker is sucking up more than half my battery life. I guess now I have to figure out what to do about that.

 **Log Entry: Sol 9**

I had an idea. But it's a very bad idea.

It's a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad idea. But it's the only thing that'll work.

I am going to go dig up the RTG.

Basically, I'm about to go dig up the giant lump of plutonium that brought the MAV here and produced the fuel to launch it up to _Hermes_. That probably makes it sound not so bad. It's much more unstable than the radioactive isotope that goes into the making of a bomb, just as an example.

This is dangerous... Very, very dangerous.

 **Log Entry: Sol 91**

So... the RTG works a little too well. So instead, I made it into a heat reservoir to heat water for the regulator's return air. This way I won't have to fuck with the rover's insulation, or anything like that. All I need to do, is set up the regulator and oxygenator, load up, and I'll be ready to go!

Bonus: I have my own 5 gallon water heater! I can have hot water for the trip, and fill it with cold water and the RTG will make it hot again! For now, I won't think about "how" the water is being heated.

 **Log Entry: Sol 110**

I've spent the last 20 days moving the Big Three, setting up the heat reservoir, and dealing with power. I also spent a day packing; things like EVA suits, electronic components, the electrical kit, all the extra Hab canvas, and anything else I might need on the road. Now all I have to do is test it, and I'll be ready to go!

 **Log Entry: Sol 117**

Testing is officially complete. I am able to get 110 Kilometers per sol, because I found a way that the boxes can charge the rovers en route, so the batteries are continually being topped off as I'm driving. Unfortunately, the power loss from driving does not get corrected entirely, since there's not enough sunlight for that, but it's something, and I'm glad I thought of it. The tricky thing was figuring out how the panels could connect into the rover's power grid, but I was able to find an extra power wire that wasn't doing anything, and I hooked the power grid wire from the rover into the box on the left, and the power grid wire from the trailer to the box on the right.

This should shorten my trip by five days or so. It's still going to be a really long-ass trip, but it seems a little more bearable when I say 45 days rather than 50 days.

Tonight I spend my last night in the Hab. According to my math, without the life support I could go 2 more days in the hab, since it takes up to a 1% co2 content before I'll start feeling the effects, but, well, better safe than sorry. I was able to harvest an additional crop of potatos before I left. I now have potatos to last me a good 190 sols, plus the rest of the food packs. Once I get to Ares II, I'll start up my potato farm again in the new HAB and I'lll be up to my ankles in manure again in no time!

Ares II had a full surface mission instead of a scrubbed one like ours, so there ought to be plenty of freeze-dried poop on hand for the purposes of restarting the farm.

I also realized that I made one large mistake. I forgot to make a bedroom. I'll have to sleep in the rover for 45 days. I said I was going to use the pop tent to make a bedroom, but in my hasty enthusiasm to get as much space as I possibly could, I forgot. Luckily, all the clutter cleaning gave me a pretty big area to sleep in. At least I'll be able to lie down flat in the rover and sleep. I might not actually need a bedroom after all. It would have been a pain in the ass to work with, anyway.

It's probably a good thing that I'm leaving this Hab tomorrow. I noticed the last time I went in that there seems to be a stretched area in Airlock One. This could've caused me a lot of trouble if I weren't leaving so soon, or if I hadn't noticed it.

For now I'm using Airlock Two to get in and out of the Hab.


	5. Chapter 5

Dr. Hua woke up, amazed, once again, to be waking up in space. On her way to Mars! The crew was three months in, with another four to go.

Just one year ago, she'd been asked if she wanted to go to Mars.

Getting to that point, (without her knowledge, obviously) discovering that she was a candidate for the first ever Kan Huo mission; it had been such an honor to discover that she was their choice. Their only choice, actually. And it was really happening.

She had said yes, of course. Why would she not?

She'd been a middle-ranked astronaut within the CNSA; but now, only Kuo ranked higher than she. It was an incredible honor, being tapped by the CNSA for this mission. She still couldn't believe it, at times, though she knew that she was uniquely qualified for this mission, with her specialty in Human Performance studies and years of experience as a flight surgeon.

Due to the reduced nature of the mission, however, their crew of three didn't really have a lot of mission duties; other than being the only three participants in the ongoing medical study that she was conducting, they spent a lot of their time with nothing much to do.

She knew that today would be another long day of boredom. In reality, medical examination day was the only day that she really had duties, and today wasn't exam day.

Kan Huo I was a mission that was designed to see how humans could live on Mars for an extended period of time. Up til now, humans had only had surface missions of thirty-one days. The surface mission portion of Kan Huo I would last six months.

As she exited her room, into the main corridor, she noticed that there was a burning smell coming from the galley.

A fire was terribly dangerous, in any spacecraft, of course, but infinitely more so in one run by the CNSA, due to the punishments meated out to the crew.

She ran to the galley, and what she saw frightened her so badly that she had no choice but to turn around and leave again.

Wei had burned the food.

Hua couldn't help but think, that if she were working for NASA, or the European Space Agency, or even the Russians, that something as trifling as burning the crew's breakfast would not be a major incident.

Logically, she knew that the rest of the world didn't work this way.

But within the CNSA, and especially with Commander Kuo at the helm, this was no laughing matter.

Kuo was a subscriber to the old ways. Old-fashioned, Chinese philosophies of how things were done, and how things were supposed to

, and the CNSA did as well.

A servant was to do his or her job without complaint or error. It was communist dogma, of course, but that was the way they lived. And here, aboard this ship, that meant Wei. If Wei shirked her duties; or made mistakes, if

things happened that resulted in the crew not being cared for diligently, the commander was well within his rights to punish her.

For this, he carried a collapsible bamboo stick. Wei had been punished several times to date, and even Hua had been punished, herself, once when she had failed to submit the medical data in time for the data dump, unleashing the wrath of Fang, the CNSA Director of Mars Operations upon Kuo.

For burning the food, she knew what the punishment would be; five lashes with the bamboo stick. Some infractions carried lesser punishments; some greater. Hua did not want to be around when Kuo found out.

She went back to her quarters, and waited. She didn't have long to wait.

Fifteen minutes later, she could clearly hear the shouting. Despite the sound-proofed, titanium walls that separated Hua's quarters from the galley, she could hear Wei's screams as Kuo whipped her, once, twice, thrice, four, five times.

This, as far as Kuo was concerned, was insubordination, and he would not be having any of it.

Wei fainted, and, although Kuo wanted to kick her, the communist party had strict dictates on what sort of punishment could be meted out. If he did any more, and anyone found out about it, he might lose his position as astronaut, as well as his standing in the party. It would bring dishonor, to go too far. Punishment had been justly awarded, and now the incident was to be forgotten.

Hua, although she was the ship's doctor, was not allowed to administer aid, in such a situation.

Wei was supposed to tend to her own injuries, which could take a week or two.

Hua poked her head out, long enough to see Wei gingerly get up, and go to the medicine cabinet.

Although Hua couldn't administer aid, there was nothing preventing her from bringing on board some extra medicines designed to heal wounds of this nature, and surreptitiously pass them on to Wei while Kuo wasn't looking. The two women had built a bond of friendship, for they knew that this would be necessary to survive this adventure.

For that day, the three crew stayed well apart, each in his or her own quarters. Kuo was still angry about the burnt food, and although the punishment was meted out and there was no more he could do, he didn't want to see anyone for the rest of the day. Hua wanted to stay out of everybody's way, lest his anger fall upon her for some minor transgression. And Wei had to lie in her bed, nursing her wounds with medicines and herbs from Hua's secret stash that Kuo knew nothing about.

The next day, Wei was gingerly moving around the ship, performing her scheduled duties.

Although barely able to move, she was still required to do the cooking and cleaning for the higher ranking crew members.

Kuo seemed to be in one of his good moods, today; he had received a message from Fang that morning, commending his efforts at keeping within the dictates of the state. He knew that if he continued to run a tight ship, and follow party rules to the letter, he'd be up for promotion in a few years.

After an enjoyable meal of rice and beef, that's what it said on the package, anyway, they were able to sit around and talk about what they expected from their time on Mars.

"What things do you think the Americans might have in their Hab?" asked Kuo.

"Maybe potatoes or something," answered Wei. "Or maybe some good wine?"

"These things would not be able to survive for so long," replied Hua. "I'm thinking food packs. But probably not the rice that we get."

"Sure hope they have something good there!" replied Kuo. "This stuff doesn't taste like the rice we have back home in Shan Dong."

"This doesn't even taste like rice, period!" replied Hua, smiling, and they all laughed, because the CNSA's food rations were famous for being of inferior quality. Even by space food standards.

After dinner, they went to the game room, which consisted basically of a console of six touchscreens where the crew could play games. They had several to choose from; go, mahjong, and Chinese chess, among other selections.

Tonight, it was Wei's turn to pick the game.

"How does mahjong sound to all of you?" she asked.

"I bet I can beat you. If you win, I'll do the cooking for tomorrow." responded Hua jovially.

"You think?" responded Wei. It was common knowledge that Hua was the best mahjong player on the ship, including the deep learning AI that formed the fourth player, since they only had 3 crew.

It took several hours, but against all odds, the AI won.

"Guess you're doing the cooking tomorrow, after all," Commander Kuo remarked to Wei, as they all went to bed.


	6. Chapter 6

Log Entry: Sol 119

Well, I'm on the road again! I'm 110 kilometers from the Hab. Right now, this here long-haul trucker is currently taking a pit stop; time to recharge the batteries.

I'm not sure what terribly fascinating things I'll find to keep myself occupied while the batteries charge; this has been one boring road trip. With nothing better to do, I suited up and took an EVA to admire the landscape; but the view is pretty much exactly the same throughout this area of the planet.

To keep myself occupied, I watched the entire run of the early Star Wars films. In order, of course. I started with New Hope, then Empire, then Jedi. Then, being a glutton for punishment, I forced myself to sit through Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones, and Rise of the Sith. I was almost shocked to find anything so recent among Lewis's endless collection of stuff from forever ago.

Log Entry: Sol 122

Navigation has been a little tricky. I know the location of the Ares II site, but getting there is kind of more complicated. I built myself a sextant; if it was good enough for the Apollo astronauts, then I guess it's good enough for me. That should get me most of the way there. Ares II is in a flat area, thank goodness, and the Hab should be visible once I've made it to the general vicinity.

My overall strategy has been to take the "as the crow flies" route to the site, and just readjust my course as I have to navigate around obstacles, using the satellite maps, low-resolution as they are, as a sort of backup road-map.

Log entry: Sol 124

There might actually be one thing I will miss if I ever get the chance to drive on Earth again. The notable lack of stoplights here. I'm the only person on the road. I'm the King of Mars!

Seriously though, it's been a really boring drive. I have had nothing to do, and the landscape hasn't really changed. It'd be fun if Olympus Mons or something like that were in my way, because then I could say I was the first person to climb the tallest mountain in the solar system (if only in a rover) but that's on the opposite side of the planet.

I've also discovered that raw potatoes taste horrible. I didn't bring the Hab's microwave along with me, so I've been subsisting mainly on food packs. I should have cooked all my potatoes before I left, but, you know, live and learn. I'll be able to cook what potatoes I need to when I arrive at Ares II.

Log entry: Sol 130

Today, I hit my first major obstacle on my Martian road trip. There's a huge crater that I will not be able to cross. It is very wide, way too steep to enter or exit; I'm thinking it will take me about two and a half days out of my way (assuming my math is correct, and I'm hitting it pretty close to dead center). So basically, it'll extend my trip by about 5 days so I can get back on track.

In other news, I'm officially out of 70s TV shows to watch. Luckily, I did find full runs of House, Scrubs, and Grey's Anatomy on Beck's personal drive, and a drive full of German movies and TV shows with English subtitles on Vogel's device. I should be good on entertainment. I hope people left their drives, or at least copied their files to the main computer at the Ares II site. Not likely, but an astronaut can dream.

Log Entry: Sol 133

I've been following the crater line around, hoping not to hit any other obstacles. Other than a small crater that was surrounding the large crater, I was able to pass through safely.

I've always wondered what the rest of Mars would look like in person. By design, each Ares crew member is only ever supposed to get to see a very small patch of the planet. I will be the first person to have made this sort of massive overland journey, always assuming that I live to tell the tale.

Today I watched _Das Boot_. It's a very interesting movie. I don't want to ruin it for anyone that's reading this, because what's worse than unexpected spoilers? But it can be summed up by the following: There's a bunch of grumpy Germans in a World War II-era submarine. They drink all the time, and there's lots of explosions. Yay! Thank you, Vogel. It made my day.

I miss getting drunk. If there are enough potatoes to spare, after I get my farm up and running at Ares 2, I think I may make make myself a fun side-project out of rigging up a simple distillery and producing some vodka.

I remember our crew's last excursion together, about a month before launch. We went to a barbecue joint in Houston. They served two things. Beef brisket by the pound, and cold beer. No ribs, no slaw, no nothing. Man, was it amazing. They slap down some newspaper and plates on the tables, and the only direction that the wait staff asks you is "more?". The answer, of course: "yes, please!"

Log Entry: Sol 140

I'm officially back on track, knock on wood. Or composite. I _should_ be arriving around Sol 175. Man, I'm really sick of being in this Rover. Although it is nice to have the daily change of scenery, I guess. I'm looking around me, and I see sights that no other living organism has ever seen. (well, unless there are hostile Martian vampires or something) But seriously, it's beautiful.

Mars is a desert, but if you look closely you can definitely see the inner beauty that the planet has to offer. Maybe my vacation chez Mars won't be so bad after all.

I've been slowly working my way through Beck's medical shows. I can't help thinking that they might save my ass sometime if something goes wrong. I mean, I don't have the proper equipment, but still, I'm the best doctor on this planet!

Log entry: Sol 141

I'm the first guy to have a stalled vehicle on Mars.

Yes, folks, we had a rover malfunction midway through the drive. One of the wheels got stuck and is not rolling anymore. If this were the trailer, I would have barely noticed or cared. It would just get dragged around. It doesn't need motors or anything.

But the front rover's motors are what's powering everything.

I spent all day trying to figure out what was wrong, but I couldn't. I'll have to look at this tomorrow.


	7. Chapter 7

a/n Hello everyone, I'm back!

Sorry about the long delay. Something between real life, extreme writer's block, and having to do this chapter twice because the first round was completely rediculous and my editter having to point that out to me kept this chapter from coming out in time.

On the up side, chapter 8 is complete, awaiting editting, so there should be no hold up for the next one!

Enjoy!

Log Entry: Sol 142

My stupid ass just committed another act of supreme stupidity. The wheel on the rover seems to be broken. I get that.

I spent quite some time trying to fix it, and then finally, had a better idea. I took a wheel from the trailer, swapped it out, and was on my way. I did waste most of a day, but at least that means I should have full batteries for tomorrow. As a side note, the song "Help" by the Beatles played through my suit radio just as I had that idea. Pretty amusing, eh?

Log Entry: Sol 145

I'm bored. Like, counting Mars rocks bored.

I've been driving this insane Mars highway for 25 fuckin' sols now. Other than the minor rover malfunction a few sols ago, this has been a drive of endless boredom.

One thing that really bugs me? I hate not having Google. Every couple of minutes, I'll inadvertently ask myself some mundane question, and I'll reflexively grab for my phone, only to remember that, no, I do not have a smartphone on my person. Furthermore, I am at least 225 million kilometers from the closest cell tower. I wonder if Martians have their own phones or things like that.

In other news, I ran out of sweet and sour chicken. I've officially moved on to sweet and sour pork.

Though, I have to admit, they really do taste the same.

It's surprisingly novel to see a new label. I wonder what kind of space food the ESA or the russians would send with their astronauts. Judging by Vogel's preferences, they'd probably send lots of sausage.

Log entry: Sol 147

Every so often I have to have an air day. This is a day when I don't actually go anywhere; instead I let my oxygen supply replenish in my rover, since I kinda need it to breathe.

Whenever I do that, I try to sneak in an EVA just to explore Mars. I mean, there are people that can say they've been to all seven continents on Earth, but I know of nobody that can say they've been all around Mars. The surface, anyway. Shut up, Martinez.

It's really been an interesting experience, apart from the crushing boredom. Although physically punishing, it's really worth it to be able to see views that nobody has ever seen before, or will see for a long time.

I wound up putting Martinez's blank data stick into a camera, so that I can bring 10 zetabytes of pictures back home with me. After all, this is a once in a lifetime vacation.

I've already filled up 500 exabytes of pictures, the high-definition kind of course, with all sorts of views, from hills, to flat land. I love it here, and when I go back to earth, I want to make a slideshow of my experience here on Mars.

Obviously videos are out, since there is no sound on Mars.

Log entry: Sol 150

I'm now descending into the area where Ares V is planned. Right now there is nothing there. I'm the only human around here who knows that in a few short years, there will be a sleek, shiny spaceship known as the MAV waiting here for its crew.

It's awesome to take pictures of this place, knowing that this is the only chance we will have to get such a view.

Just for fun, I made a Martian driver's license for myself. I drew the NASA logo, and issued myself a "class A licence to drive all vehicles designed to function on the surface of any planet" I figure if the Martian police come to stop me, then I can flash my Martian license. Maybe I'd better do something about the insurance policy though...

Log Entry: Sol 155

If I were taking an Earthling road trip, I could drive along Route 66; I'd see convenience stores, restaurants, bars, stores, and other types of buildings. You get to interact with other human beings, and see various small towns.

I can tell you that on Mars, this is definitely not the case. As I drive along Martian Route 66, I have observed: rocks, soil, rocks, soil, a hill or two, a crater or two, and more rocks and soil. I have been eating nothing but dehydrated food and potatoes for 155 sols. That's 155 sols: which is 3797.5 hours, which is 227,850 minutes. This is a very boring food supply.

In some strange twist of fate, I found a German movie where everyone was drinking beer and eating sausage. Man would I kill for even one of those things right now.

Log entry: Sol 160

I kind of wonder what NASA makes of all this. I wonder what the fallout has been, over my death. I can't be bothered to get a calculator at the moment, but if my estimate is right, the rest of my crew should be home about three months from now. It must be sad on the Hermes.

It's funny, out of all the people I miss, it's really the crew that I miss the most. I mean, don't get me wrong, I miss my family and other friends, and I would love to see my parents again. But as an Ares crew, you develop a sort of team bond that's hard to describe.

Log Entry: Sol 165

I was thinking today, wondering again if NASA even knows that I'm alive. They have no way of communicating to me if they were, of course.

On the other hand, between Sanders and Annie Montrose, they probably didn't want take satellite images of the site. It would've been a potential public relations nightmare. If there is one thing that I can't stand about NASA, it's all the internal politicking. It's amazing how much bullshit you have to do just to requisition a computer, or get some images over there. I bet they just decided to take it for granted that I was dead and not look.

Log entry: Sol 170

According to my calculations, I should be about four or five sols drive from the other Hab site.

I've been incredibly lucky. I only had the one issue. Knowing my luck, I would have thought there'd be a lot more. I'm really hoping that I will find some data sticks, or at least some data on the Hab computer.

The Ares II sysop, Halliday, was a complete 80s geek. At the very least, I should be reunited with War Games, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, and Back to the Future, because there's no way that Halliday would have neglected to bring that sort of stuff along. He's a bigger nerd than Johanssen, and that's really saying something.

So maybe instead of all 70s, I can go forward in time one decade? It sounds like progress to me. Side note: I wonder what it would be like to travel back in time to 1986. I bet things would be really different.

If this rover had a flux capacitor right now, I'd totally try it out, just as long as it could bring me to _Earth_ in 1986 rather than Mars in 1986, I'd be really happy. Of course, there is no way I could get the rover to anywhere near 140 kilometers per hour, so there's no way I could do time travel on Mars, at least Doc Brown-style. Probably a good thing.

Log entry: Sol 174

I see the Hab! So tiny, but there it is!

I have finally arrived in the general vicinity of Ares II!

It's in another pretty flat landscape, so I can see for a good few kilometers. I was trying to get there today, but I ran the rover out of juice. Just twenty kilometers to go, though! I'm really excited to see what the Hab contains!

I've been trying to make a game plan on what I need to do when I get there; first is the potato farm. It's critical that I begin that project as early as possible.

Luckily this time, I'll already have a seed crop, so I'll be able to start making food crops right away.

Also, I've realized that Ares I is only about another 10 sols away. Karen Rhodes, the mechanical engineer on Ares I, told me that they only sent a half-sized Hab, that first time. I'm wondering if I might be able to rig up a system to tow it back to Ares II. With a Hab and a half, I should be able to set up an sustainable food supply while I figure out what to do, and wait for Ares IV to get here

.

On another side note, I really do hope there is more entertainment in Ares II. I'm bored.


	8. Chapter 8

Kuo awoke, in the luxurious Commander's stateroom aboard the _Huo Chaun_. Although his room didn't have larger dimensions than the other crew member's rooms, it _was_ the only one that had the advantageous layouts for _feng shu_ i.

Space constraints had caused each of the other crew member bunks to have at least one major _feng shui_ flaw. Half of them, for instance, forced the crew member to sleep with their feet pointing to the door, which definitely flew in the face of the rules of _feng shui_.

It was hard to believe, somehow, that in another two months, they would actually be orbiting Mars. They would be the first Chinese astronauts to set foot on another planet. They'd also be the first humans to live on Mars for longer than 31 days. Not even the Americans and their legendary Ares program could compete with _that._

As the acting Commander of the _Huo Chaun_ , Kuo really couldn't complain; the crew might be small, but they were bright and efficient, and always willing to do what was asked of them. He did have the occasional problem with Wei, it was true, but it had been two months since the food burning incident now, and things had been fairly stable since then.

He skimmed over the mission status calendar on his display, and noted that today was medical examination day. If nothing else, this meant that he wouldn't be mind-numbingly bored, like he was the other six days of the week.

Each mission day, Hua was getting more and more excited about the surface mission. It was going to be the experience of a lifetime.

She looked up on her mission status calendar and noticed that it was medical examination day. It was the one day when she had a significant amount of duties. As a practitioner of all three disciplines; Chinese acupuncture, herbal medicine, and Western medicine, one of her jobs was to collect data on human performance, and the differences between Mars, microgravity, and Earth. Of course, NASA already had collected a large amount of data concerning Western flight medicine, but this was not information that they shared with the CNSA or the Russian space agencies. Only the ESA had access to such privileged information.

Her job as the sysop was laughably easy; it was practically non-existent. The computer was more or less controlled by the ground crew; she was only on hand in case of an emergency. If (and only if) the com systems failed, she would be responsible for fixing the systems on the ship, at which point she would be expected to promptly turn control back over to the the ground crew.

She was definitely getting along better with Kuo, since there hadn't been any recent _incidents_ where he felt the need to use the cane. Hwa had been surprised when a sort of camaraderie had developed between all of them; a sort of feeling of teamwork and cooperation, as the only humans for miles around. Their differing ranks didn't seem to matter as much as they did when they were on Earth, and under scrutiny by the government every moment of their lives.

Wei woke up and immediately got out of bed.

Then, she noticed that it was medical examination day on the mission status calendar above her bed, so she got back into bed again.

This was the closest thing that she had to a day off. Due to the primitive nature of the medical equipment they had on hand, any food consumption would not produce the proper medical data and render the examinations useless.

Therefore, on the day of the exams, the crew was not allowed to eat. They were, however, given one and a half of their typical daily rations the day before, and one and a half rations again, the following day, so this compensated for the lack of food during exam day.

The ship was already spotlessly clean, and working in tip top shape. This was the sort of mission day that Wei yearned for; she typically had far more work than the other two crew combined; but today she could relax with the others. There was very little work to be done today.

As she lay in bed, drowsy, she thought about the upcoming arrival at Mars. Her thoughts drifted to what sort of duties she would be doing there. Firstly, she'd probably be in charge of giving the Hab a thorough cleaning; how messy did the Ares II crew leave their Hab? How much clean up work would need to be done?

Luckily, she'd learned a little English, so she'd probably be able to manage to read the instructions and other things on the NASA equipment, if a need should arise. Doctor Hua also knew a little bit of English, but she had done her training in Germany, so her German was a lot better than her English. And Kuo, well, he had always been against Western ideals and culture, so he only knew Chinese. He figured that was the only language he would need to make it in the Communist party, and he'd been largely correct in that!

Later that day, Kuo and Wei headed to the makeshift clinic where Hua awaited them and had her equipment set up in one of the unused crew staterooms of the _Huo Chuan_. There were few advantages that came with flying a crew of three in a ship designed for six, but one of them was that each person was allocated both a personal bedroom and an office. The extra space could be used for work, and personal space as well.

Kuo used his as a command center, and as a private place to write his missives to Fang and the other higher-ups at the CNSA. Wei used hers as additional storage.

Each crew member was put through a battery of tests. First came the Western tests: the MRI, the EKG, a urine sample, and a stool sample. Then there were more traditionally Chinese herbal test protocols. These human performance studies were designed to compare the effects and causalities in a gravity level similar to that of Mars.

Luckily for the Doctor Hua, almost everything on the _Huo Chuan_ was automated. All of the medical data was compiled by the ship's main computer. The ship's medical equipment was synchronized with the main computer; all that Hua had to do was tell it which data belonged to which crew member. During the weekly data-dump, the medical files would be disseminated amongst the ground crew. Fang and the medical team would be in charge of analysis. Then instructions could be relayed during the following week's data dump.

The entire weekly process took about six hours. Afterwards, they were all considered off-duty. Usually the crew was tired and worn out, from the combination of no meals that day, and more work than they generally did, and they tended to go straight to bed. The process would certainly be more long and drawn out, though, once the surface mission began.

One of the aspects of the surface mission that Wei was especially looking forward to was growing plants in the Hab using a mixture of Martian dirt and potting soil. They would be growing herbs from the Chinese medicine protocols, and Wei would be in charge of planting the seeds, fertilizing and watering them.

They would do EVAs to collect the Martian dirt, and then they would remove some of the perchlorates with a washing procedure, before mixing it with potting soil. The potting soil would provide the necessary bacteria and jumpstart the growth process, at least in theory. Waiting for them on the surface, among the supplies packed into their ascent vehicle, was an improved water reclamation system that could filter out perchlorates, keeping them out of the water supply.

After the medical tests, Kuo went to bed, feeling hungry but still satisfied. He was contributing towards the scientific knowledge of space! He, Commander Kuo of the _Huo Chuan_ , was bringing glory to China and the Communist party! There was nothing that could go wrong. Absolutely nothing.


End file.
